Satellite Used in Polar Research Enters Retirement
After a long career providing communications support, NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) 1 is retiring. From 1983 to 1998, TDRS-1 allowed NASA to talk to other satellites in orbit. From 1998 to 2009, NASA reassigned TDRS-1 to support the National Science Foundation (NSF) and its U.S. Antarctic Program partners to perform scientific, educational, and operational endeavours. Launched aboard space shuttle Challenger's maiden voyage in April 1983, TDRS-1 was the first satellite used to support launches from NASA's Kennedy Space Centre in Florida in the early 1990s, returning real-time telemetry. It closed a dead zone over the Indian Ocean where there previously was no communication, providing 100 percent coverage of the space shuttle and low Earth orbiting satellites. Because of its orbit, the satellite was able to see both the North and South Poles. Read more
NASA: After a rocky start and then a stellar 26-year performance, NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite - 1 (TDRS-1) is scheduled for decommissioning on October 28. Communications equipment that links TDRS-1 to the ground has failed and without this capability it can no longer relay science data and spacecraft telemetry to ground stations located at the White Sands Complex in Las Cruces, N.M., and on Guam.
The TDRS-1 satellite is to be decommissioned on the 21st October 2009.
TDRS-1, known before launch as TDRS-A, is an American communications satellite which is operated by NASA as part of the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System. It was constructed by TRW, it was launched by Space Shuttle Challenger on its maiden flight, STS-6. Challenger lifted off from Launch Complex 39A of the Kennedy Space Centre at 18:30:00 GMT on 4 April 1983. Read more
Northrop Grumman-Built TDRS-1 Satellite Reaches 25 Years of Operational Success The first of six Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) system spacecraft built by Northrop Grumman Corporation completed 25 years of successful on-orbit operations on April 4, setting a new standard for long life and reliability.